


Wisteria and Roses

by AllieRat



Category: Naruto
Genre: Abusive Parents, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Warring States Period (Naruto), but just her dad, hes a pos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:34:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28955058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllieRat/pseuds/AllieRat
Summary: Hanako Ueno is the daughter of the head of a small, dying out Clan. Being born in the midst of a war between Clans was a surefire guarantee for a life of hardships, loss, and death. One fated evening meeting two boys by the river is all it takes to change the future forever. [[Warring States Era OC / OC Changes Plot]]
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> [[A/N: Hello and welcome! Thank you for clicking and taking an interest, it means a lot to me! As the summary says, this is taking place during the Warring States Period, when Hashirama and Madara are children. My character does change how the story goes because of her involvement in the world, so it's an AU story technically! I hope you enjoy the story, please leave a comment if you have anything at all to say! Enjoy the read!]]

A wide field stretched ahead of her, bright green grass damp and healthy from the recent light rainfall. The field was scattered with wild flowers of varying colors and sizes, different types that she was learning to recognize and put a name to. Her mother liked to garden and press flowers in her free time, you see, and she was teaching her daughter to do the same. On a regular day, with the sun shining the way it was now, illuminating the field in warm streams of light and feeding the plant life, she could name almost every one of them with little to no mistakes in pronunciation. They were mostly wildflowers and were seen quite frequently around the area, but still. She could name many of them, and on a regular day, she was proud of that.

On a regular day.

Today, she could hardly see them through her tears. Someone was holding her hand - no, not holding it, _gripping it_ so, so tightly - and running quickly towards the field of wildflowers. She wanted to tell them that it hurt, that they were pinching her skin beneath their nails, that they were moving too quick and she would fall and scrape her knees if they didn’t slow down, that she would run off and tattle to her mother if they didn’t stop being so rough with her.

 _Mother._ Her thoughts scattered. _Where is mother?_

Slowly, her senses returned to her.

First, her hearing. The screaming of panicked and injured people around her filled her ears, but they were drowned out by the crackle of flames all around her, and the burning of her lungs ached in her chest. Her hand, the one not being pulled by this stranger being just-too-rough with her, came up to tug at the fabric of her plain, cheaply made yukata. It was loose on her, like it’d been put on in a hurry, but she still clawed at it, thinking it must have been the reason she felt like she was choking. Tight, it must be too tight. Suffocating.

Then, her smell. Burning wood crackled behind her, and when she took in a needy gasp of air, the only thing greeting her lungs was smoke. _Fire,_ she thought, confused. _There’s a fire. Where’s mother?_ She smelled the burning wood, the sickly sweet smell of flowers burning on the wind, the almost-familiar scent of meat that had been left to cook for too long and was burnt to a charcoal. Then, she tasted it. Tasted the ash on her tongue, the blood in her mouth. She took in another breath of air, coming in as a choked gasp, and she coughed so hard her frame shook.

“Don’t breathe it in, Hana-chan! Hold your breath, we’re almost to the fields!” A desperate, shaky voice of a young boy called in front of her. She looked up at the person pulling her along, finally, and she saw the familiar face of her older brother staring down at her. His eyes were wet with unshed tears, but none of them fell.

_Strong, even now. Just as father taught him to be._

“Where--” she tried to ask a question in her croaky, broken voice, but she coughed again. She coughed and coughed and coughed until she thought her lungs would just come right up through her throat. Her brother, only four years older than her, turned to look at her again with panic in his eyes. He didn’t know what to do, and was scared to lose anyone. He stopped abruptly, bending down on his knees. 

“Get on, Hana-chan! Hurry! I’ll carry you out of here!” He coughed a few times in between words, but it was nowhere near as bad as her own attempts at speaking. She obeyed while holding her breath, wrapping her small arms around his neck as he grabbed her legs, stood, and _leapt._

She’d seen him do amazing tricks before - her mother had once gently explained it to her as _‘just something that a Shinobi does’_ \- and while she didn’t fully understand it, she was taught to just not question it. He soared through the air for a moment, touched down onto the ground gently, then leapt once more. The second leap brought them out of the hazy ash surrounding their home and into the clear air of the field of wildflowers, where she looked around and noticed there were several other people as well. They all sat crying, cradling injuries and weeping over still bodies. The smell of burnt meat was strong.

Her brother let her down, breathing heavily, and she had another coughing fit. A hand slapped her on the back harshly, and she fell over into the grass. Snot and tears fell from her face freely. Her eyes stung from the smoke, her lungs ached from breathing in ash, and her whole body was sore from running so hard at the beginning. She sobbed loudly, scared and confused and in pain.

“Okaa-chan! Okaa-chan!” She cried into the air loudly, blindly reaching out for her mother to cradle her in her arms. She got up onto her hands and knees and looked around for her brother, looking for comfort from anyone who would bring it to her, only to find that he was gone as well.

 _Back into the fight,_ she remembered her father once saying in his stern, cold voice. _That’s what Shinobi do. They get hurt, and they get up and get back into the fight._

She didn’t want him back in the fight, though. She clutched damp grass between her fingers, pulling up dirt and wildflowers. “Kouji-nii!” She cried out into the air again. She felt so alone, despite being surrounded by others who were in the same situation as her, had suffered the same atrocity as she had. “Come back, Kouji-nii! Please!”

Hands enveloped her, and she wrapped her own small, thin arms around them in turn. She didn’t know who it was, but she wanted comfort from someone, anyone - anyone who could tell her that it would be alright. 

She wept until she had nothing left to shed, and her head had gone so light and dizzy from crying so hard. The stranger didn’t let go of her once, and there, in a stranger’s bandage-wrapped arms smelling of burn salve, she fell unconscious.

* * *

_Uchiha._

The name was thrown around more than once. At first, in quiet whispers. The people who’d lost their homes to the fires were afraid that if they spoke it too loudly, it would summon them back, like demons. They muttered together angrily, bitter frowns on their lips and hard lines around their eyes. 

_Uchiha._

As they counted the bodies, wrapped burn victims in salve and bandages, and shared what little food and water that had been saved from the flames, their anger grew. With their growing anger, so did their voices.

They began spitting on the name, cursing it loudly into the sky. 

“Damn you, _Uchiha_ bastards!”

“Monsters, the lot of you! _Uchiha_ filth!”

“Don’t ever show your faces again, _Uchiha_ devils, if you know what’s good for you!”

That last one was just a brave face, everyone knew. If they really did return, those Shinobi with dark hair and blood red eyes who had set their home aflame, every single one of them would likely shrink away in fear. They all knew this, and yet, as the angry young men shouted those words, there were rallying cries to boost it up higher. As if maybe, just maybe, if enough people believed in them, they could really stand a chance.

* * *

“Hanako….” A gentle voice spoke so, so far away. It sounded like it was on the other side of a tunnel, and just briefly, she thought of the time her older brother had whisked her away on an adventure away from their home. 

He’d taken her somewhere not too far, knocked his knuckles on a stone wall, and lifted a fake door covered in leaves. She had looked through the hole with wide eyes, and her brother had laughed, encouraging her to crawl through the tunnel and go to the other side. She’d taken a step back and shook her head mutely, afraid. He looked at her quietly for a moment, then smiled - gave her a pat on the head, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear - and crawled through by himself.

She had watched him in fear the entire time, numerous thoughts running through her head. What if the little tunnel collapsed? What if he was too big to fit through it and he got stuck? Would she have to go in to save him? What if she went in to save him and _she_ got stuck too? Would they be stuck there and grow old in that little tunnel forever?

He’d made it through to the other side with no complications, however. He had turned back to look at her through the tunnel when he was cleared, and smiled and called out to her. It echoed loudly, and she had clamped her hands over her ears with a smile.

“ _Hanako!_ ” 

It didn’t echo this time. She opened her eyes quickly, looking at the person standing over her, shouting her name, with tears in her eyes. What? What had she done to deserve being yelled at?

Her older brother, Kouji, stood over her with his hands on her shoulders. He’d been shaking her as well as shouting her name, trying to get her to wake up. The moment he saw the tears in her eyes, he reeled back with guilt. He stammered out an apology.

“Ah- I’m sorry, Hana-chan! Don’t cry! I didn’t mean to shout at you!” He leaned forward and scooped her up in his arms. She hugged back without delay, sniffling a bit. When she looked over his shoulders to look around, she found she was in an unfamiliar place. It looked like a spare room in a regular house, but the walls were filthy and there were no lights. It was dark. “I just… got so scared. Mother said to let you sleep because you were healing, but when you didn’t wake up for three whole days I was so scared you would die!” 

He sniffled, and she thought he might be crying, but when she pulled away she saw his tears were unshed. Locked tightly behind his eyes. He smiled down at her with a look of equal sadness and relief in his wet eyes. Then, she blinked.

“Okaa-chan’s here? She’s okay?” She spoke quietly. Kouji nodded at her.. 

“She’s okay. She breathed in a lotta smoke, but the healer said that her and the baby are okay for now.”

 _The baby._ Her mother was due any day, already well into the ninth month of pregnancy. She hadn’t even remembered that, when she was in the field crying for her mother. She’d just wanted her to show up, magically, and whisk her away to a happier place. Was that selfish? She didn’t know.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Hana-chan…” Kouji said in the silence of the room. She looked up at him, her hands clasped in her lap.

 _He looked okay_ , she said in her mind. There were smudges of dirt on his fair skin, and so much soot and ash in his hair that the silver locks had nearly turned black; His brown eyes were overcast with a darkness that hadn’t been there just a week ago. He looked filthy, and their mother would surely chide him for not presenting himself well in front of others, but he looked _safe_ and _alive._

Tears pricked at her eyes in relief and a culmination of other emotions that she was too frazzled to name, and unlike her strong elder Shinobi brother who never cried at all, they fell freely. Her father sometimes told her that she was too emotional, that she cried _too_ much, but her mother had always sidled up behind her after he left and whispered that crying was good because it let out all the emotions that you couldn’t handle on the inside. She always waited until he left to say it, though.

Hanako Ueno cried and embraced her brother.


	2. Chapter 1

[[A/N: Hello again and welcome back! Thank you for continuing to read! I'm glad my story has got your attention enough to read onwards (: There are no word limits to my chapters, I just write them to a point I think they naturally stop at, so some will be short and some will be longer. I have a planned ending to the story but I don't know how many chapters it will take to finish it.

Also, my tumblr **artist-assassin** will have drawings of the Ueno Clan family and other things relating to this story, so feel free to go check it out if you'd like to! Enjoy the chapter! Leave a review if you have anything to say!]]

* * *

"Hana-chan, get up!"

She sighed heavily at the voice, rolling over in her bed sheets. Maybe if she ignored them, it would go away and she could get a few more moments of blissful peace. Then again, she thought that every morning when someone else had to come wake her up, and it was never true.

_"Hanaaa!"_

She sighed again.

"Aoi-san said if you aren't up in the next ten minutes, you don't get breakfast!" Her eyes opened slowly, blinking in the dull light of the room. It wasn't too bright, the sun had only come up just enough to fill the sky with a light blue, not yet golden rays. She waited for a moment, then heard the person on the other side of the door grumble before stomping away. As soon as they left, she sat up in her bed and yawned.

She stretched her hands far above her head, leaning forward to arch her back like a cat. Afterwards, she stood up and obediently cleaned her face, hands, and neck with a washcloth before getting dressed for the day. She had a lot of chores ahead of her, and even though she played the same game every morning where she refused to get up until the person on the other side of the door left, she always got up just in time for breakfast anyway.

Well, almost always. There was one time where she accidentally fell asleep again, waiting for her newest waker-upper to leave, and she'd gotten an earful from the cook, a haggard older lady named Aoi, who really did refuse to feed her breakfast.

With a smile on her face as she slid open the screen door to her bedroom, she remembered how her brother had saved her a snack just for that reason.

She speed-walked quickly to the yard. Despite the threat of not getting breakfast if she hadn't gotten up soon, the meal itself wouldn't be served until after 'sunrise chores' had been finished. Namely, she had to sweep away the stray leaves on the patio outside, help pick weeds in the small garden off to the side of the campgrounds, then she, in a cruel twist of irony, had to help wake up the smaller children for breakfast.

She did her duties diligently, as she always did. It was a monotonous kind of repetition, doing the same chores every morning, every afternoon, and every night. But, she reminded herself, that repetition meant _safety_. Repetition meant nothing was disturbed, nothing new was happening - for new was scary, and bound to bring troubles.

As she dusted off the dirt from her hands, ready to head inside to wake up the other children so they could all eat breakfast together, she let her mind wander.

The Ueno Clan - and it _was_ a Clan, despite its recent downfall and dwindling numbers - had been big, once. Big and important. Years ago, many years before she had been born, her father had led the Clan into battle against various enemies countless times. They battled other Clans, mostly, but sometimes her mother liked to tell her stories that she was sure were fake, like how he had taken down a whole army of demons on his own. Or how he once challenged a fierce monstrosity into an eating contest to leave a nearby village in peace, only to trick it by slipping poison into its drink. She enjoyed the stories, giggling the night away by her mother's side, but as she grew older, she came to realize that, really… All they ever fought were other people.

Over stupid things, she thought. Land. Resources. Honor. Titles. Whole wars could break out if someone didn't refer to a Clan head with the right honorifics. She hated it all, and once - _only once_ \- during dinner, she had told her father that it was stupid how everyone fought each other instead of sharing what they had. She brought up how everyone had shared their own things, water and food and medicine, when their house had burned down all those years ago. Her mother had gone quiet, eyes downcast at her meal, silent even as her hands shook. Her brother had looked at her with wide brown eyes, shocked.

Her father had slapped her so hard she knocked her head on the ground when she fell, then he'd gotten up and stormed away.

Kouji had knelt by her side to pick her up, and her mother scolded her for a full two hours to never speak so disrespectfully to her father again. Her hands shook the whole time she checked over Hanako's head for injuries. There had been none - just a large bruise on her cheek that she hid easily enough with her long, silver hair.

"Where are you?"

Hanako nearly jumped out of her skin, resting a hand on the wall of the hallway she had been walking through, looking to the side to see a familiar face staring at her.

"Just now," Kouji said with curious eyes. He was wearing his armor, she noted with a dull frown. He smiled at her. "Did you get lost in your thoughts again, Hana-chan?"

Hanako paused to take a deep breath in, calming her nerves, before she leveled a pout at him and shook her head. If her older brother had ever minded her quietness, how she barely spoke around others, he had never given any indication to it. She was thankful to him for it.

"Really?" He grinned, sidling up to her to gently knock on her head with his knuckles. "You looked like you were a whole mile away! I thought I'd have to go in there to get you back!"

She swatted him away with a small smile. She didn't want to encourage his teasing, but she couldn't help giggling softly when he was smiling. It happened rarely these days, when he went out time after time to fight for something - _something stupid_ \- in the name of the Ueno clan, coming back after days or weeks of absence with a dark look in his eyes and armor covered in blood.

_Armor._

She stopped her giggling all at once, her smile dropping. She looked at him again, and frowned at the armor he wore. She tugged on one of his metal shoulder guards, looking at him with wide, pleading eyes.

He seemed to understand what she meant, and his teasing grin turned to a pained smile.

"I have to go soon, Hana-chan. I came by to see you before I left."

It was something he always did, giving a new excuse every time he was asked about it. Never once had he left without seeing her off, even if he had to wake her in the middle of the night for an emergency mission that he'd had no time to prepare for.

 _So he wouldn't die without saying goodbye,_ her thoughts turned dark. He never said it out loud, but she was sure that was the reason.

He noticed it right away, of course. Shinobi always noticed things that Hanako had never been able to spot. He gave a gentle pat to the top of her head, then tucked a loose tuft of silver hair behind her ear.

"I'll come back soon, Hana-chan. I have two adorable little sisters to return to, after all!"

With that, he left. Disappeared in the blink of an eye. Another 'thing that Shinobi do', she knew and was used to by now. As she mulled over his words, she remembered with a start - her sister! She had to go wake the younger children for breakfast!

She rushed quietly through the compound, knowing by now which floorboards creaked and which ones were silent. Her brother had taught her after she was caught trying to sneak into the kitchens late one night for a glass of water; the lesson had mainly been the two of them goofing off the whole time until he'd reached the area just outside their parents' room. Then he'd shown her, quietly, with a serious expression, how to sneak around it without a sound.

 _"Never,"_ he'd said solemnly, _"wake up Father."_

She shook the thoughts from her head, reaching a room where a bunch of children and infants slept. She woke them up one by one, with gentle shakes and, if they didn't work, blowing air on their faces. They almost always woke to that one. When she reached the bed that her younger sister slept in, she climbed up onto the bed quietly.

"Sachiko, Sachiko," she whispered. Her voice was small and delicate, owing its weakness to how infrequently she ever used it. She shook her sister's shoulder gently. Blearily, the younger girl's big brown eyes blinked up at her. Hanako smiled. "Food."

Her little sister sat up, but instead of getting out of bed like the others had, she leaned forward and crawled into Hanako's lap. The older girl smiled, picking her up to carry her.

She was very small and somewhat light, only being four years old. Hanako had never minded carrying her sister to places she wanted to go, and neither had Kouji. She'd been born 'wrong', her brother once told her after the little girl first came into this world (and boy, how their mother had angered at that, at calling Sachiko _wrong_ ). Four years ago, their family home, the Ueno Clan compound, had been burned to the ground, caught in a conflict between two different Clans - _Uchiha,_ her mind whispered - and while the Clan Head's wife, Yuna, hadn't sustained any injuries during her escape, she had breathed in enough smoke and ash that many thought the birth wouldn't go well at all. So many complications arose as they travelled to a new home to settle into, so many Clansmen worried of how both mother and child were at risk of not surviving the laborious task of birth. Hanako's mother had bared it all with a smile.

Despite all odds, both survived.

Sachiko's heart beat too fast, and her lungs were very weak. She couldn't play with the other children because she tired out too quickly, and sometimes she got excited enough that her heart would beat too fast and she'd pass out, and someone had to summon a healer. She was doted on by all the adults, and children would feel bad about leaving her out of their games so they often brought back anything they found in the dirt that they thought was interesting. Little Sachiko had a collection of rocks she thought was pretty, gifts given to her by the other kids, and Hanako was happy to help her collection grow anytime she went out to the river to fetch water.

(There was a well on the grounds, but it was contaminated and nobody was allowed to drink from it. Kouji had had the good sense to cut the rope that carried the bucket up and down long ago so no forgetful children could drink the filthy water when they were thirsty from playing.)

She delivered a sleepy Sachiko to the breakfast area, and the cook scooped her up with a smile, immediately poking at the girl's nose and telling her how pretty she was and what a good little girl she was for getting up on time.

Hanako pretended not to notice the stink eye sent her way at that, sitting down to eat breakfast. For a little while, they all ate in relative silence.

"Hanako-sama," Aoi called her when she was nearly done with her food. Hanako looked up with a mouthful of fish. Being the Clan Head's daughter, most others outside of her immediate blood family dutifully referred to her with the proper honorific that the title brought her.

"Yes, Aoi-san?" She responded in a meek voice after swallowing. She would have preferred to not speak at all, but she knew from experience that the grouchy old cook would not speak again until she showed her the 'respect she deserved as an Ueno elder'. Her words, of course.

"Will you go out and fetch some water after you're finished? The stores are running low. The buckets are by the door already."

With that, Aoi left to go fuss over Sachiko's messy eating. Hanako felt a twinge of annoyance, both at the fact that she didn't ask her to fetch water so much as she commanded her to fetch water, and at the fact that she'd already put the buckets by the door because she knew the young girl wouldn't say no. Despite this, she finished her meal in a few more bites and put her dishes by the stack that some other girls would wash, then went out to dutifully do her tasks.

She was only eight years old, so she'd found it curious how she was trusted to do certain tasks on her own. Her doing work despite being the Clan Head's daughter was of no surprise on its own; due to how few Ueno there were left in the Clan, many women and children worked and Hanako wanted to be useful to them. The river nearby was familiar to her, she'd gone down there several times in the last few months that they'd been in this new location, but it was a fair distance away. Often when she was tasked with bringing buckets of water back, she had to take breaks to set down the heavy metal and rest her legs for a few moments.

She never told others that it was a taxing task, though. She wanted to be useful, and she hated the idea of declining to help because she didn't enjoy the chore. Everyone did work they didn't enjoy. She had to do her part, for her family and her Clan.

She swung the buckets as she walked through the foliage of the forest. There was a path beaten into the ground that helped her get to and from her destination. It didn't go directly to the river itself, however - she had no idea where the other side of the path went to, only that when she reached the tree with a red ribbon tied on one of the upper branches, it was time to veer off to the left. She headed straight, and eventually the grassy forest turned into hard rocks and gravel as she neared the rushing river.

She stepped just close enough so that the bottoms of her feet were in the water, then leaned down and submerged the bucket to fill it as much as she could, then set it on the gravel beside her. The water was freezing despite it being spring, but she bore it in silence. She lifted the other bucket, submerging it all the same.

_"-ou! You can't hide from me-!"_

She froze.

Fear struck every part of her nerves, her body felt like it had been submerged in ice at the sudden coldness that shocked through her body. She didn't move, even when her bucket filled and was almost carried away by the rushing currents of the water below her. Her mind went into overdrive, and she began thinking of all the worst possibilities.

_What was that voice? Who did it belong to? Kouji? No, that's not his voice. A Shinobi? An enemy? Are they going to kill me? I should never have come out here, I should have said no to Aoi-san. I'm going to die here, I'll never see Sachiko or Kouji or Mother again-_

Her breathing quickened and she felt tears prick her eyes. She was hyperventilating, and her legs felt sore from the amount of time she's been crouched over in the shallow end of the river.

Then she heard laughter, and the voice of a young boy - younger than Kouji - shout, _"Hey! No fair!"_

Inch by inch, she forced her head upwards. There were no Shinobi here, at least not anyone dressed like a Shinobi. There were just… two boys. Younger than Kouji, like she'd thought when hearing the voice for the second time. They were on the other side of the river bank, pushing each other into the dirt and laughing, seemingly wrestling with each other. Some of the children in the compound wrestled, so the sight was familiar to her.

Her heart was still beating wildly, but it calmed itself slowly as she took in deep breaths.

She finally stood up. Her fingers were freezing, having been submerged with the bucket in the icy river water the entire time she had been panicking, but she was sure the shaking was not from the cold. Her legs felt like they'd give out underneath her, and she forced herself to stay upright.

She'd felt this feeling before, the weakness she got after feeling intense fear. Once, she had gotten lost in a forest when she was playing tag with her brother, and she'd heard bushes rustling nearby. She cried and cried, thinking for sure it was an enemy who would pop out and grab her. Instead, it had only been a squirrel having trouble climbing up the tree.

Kouji had poked fun at her for a while after that.

She took in several deep breaths, steadying herself, then picked up the other bucket and began making her way slowly, quietly, back to the forest. She didn't know them - didn't want to know them - and her mother had always told her to be wary of strangers. She just wanted to go back home.

"Oh-! Hey!" She heard one voice call out, much louder than before. It had to have been directed to her. She turned around slowly, no longer shaking but still feeling like she might collapse with one wrong step.

As she thought, it was directed at her. The two boys were standing up now, dirt smudged on their outfits and faces, looking at her. One boy, the one who had called out to her judging from the way he was waving his hand wildly in the air, was wearing a dark kimono shirt beneath a short, light green jacket. He had pinstriped kimono pants tied with a sash around his waist. His hair was short, dark brown, and cut in a bowl style. He wore plain sandals.

The other boy stood a step behind, looking at her with wide, dark eyes. He wore a dark blue, short yukata that went to his knees, with a light blue sash wrapped around the middle. He wore plain white paints beneath it. His hair was dark and spiky looking, down to his chin. Like the first, he also wore plain sandals.

Why was he staring at her with wide eyes? Was he just as surprised to see her as she was to see them two here?

"Hey!" The boy with the bowl-cut shouted again, a grin on his face. He cupped his hands around his mouth to make his voice louder. "We're skipping rocks on the water, wanna join? I can teach you how!"

The boy with dark hair said something quietly to the bowl-cut boy, and bowl-cut boy responded with something just as quiet and a teasing look on his face. Dark hair boy whacks his arm with an angry expression.

Hanako didn't know what was going on between them - were they fighting? Or were they just playing, like how Kouji would tease her sometimes? She didn't want to find out. She just wanted to go home and convince Aoi that somebody bigger than her should start collecting water from now on. She turned around, but she couldn't take a single step before the same boy shouted again.

"Wait, wait!" She paused and, against her desire to go home, turned around again to look at him. It would be disrespectful to just walk away while they were talking to her, right? She would wait until they were done talking, then she'd leave. "I can really teach you how to skip stones! I'm good at it, watch!"

Bowl-cut boy picked up a rock from his side of the river, leaned back on his right leg, then tossed the stone at an angle. It skipped once, twice, three times against the top of the surface before it sunk to the bottom. It'd made it maybe two-thirds of the way through, not reaching her at all. All three children were silent for a moment, then the bowl-cut boy sat down and hugged his knees to his chest, wailing about how ashamed he was to have messed up his throw in front of a girl.

"Stop being so depressed, you're embarrassing me!" Dark-haired boy pointed and shouted at the quietly sulking boy.

Both of them stopped their fake arguing when they heard quiet giggling. They looked over at the girl and found her laughing at their antics. The boy with dark hair blushed and the boy with the bowl-cut grinned widely at having made her laugh.

Neither of them said a thing, though, as the girl set her buckets down, picked up a handful of stones from the river bank, and flawlessly skipped them all to the other side at the side time. Both boys stared in awe, not even attempting to conceal their amazement. The girl, so small and frail looking, picked up both buckets again and turned around to leave. She paused, then called over her shoulder,

"It was nice meeting you!" _Because it would have been rude to not say that, wouldn't it?_

Both boys stared at where she disappeared from. After a moment in stunned silence, they finally speak up again. "I gotta learn that," the boy with the bowl-cut said quietly.

"I'll learn it first," said the boy with dark hair. His competitive streak came out easily.

The challenge was on immediately.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [[A/N: Hello, thank you for continuing to read! If any of you are wondering about the update schedule, frankly put I just don't have one! I write whenever I feel like writing, and I update whenever I have the chapter after it finished. So that way if I don't feel like writing for a while, I'll still have one more chapter available to post so you guys won't have to wait too long for the next read.
> 
> Enjoy the chapter! Leave a comment if you have anything to say!]]

She thinks about those two boys a lot. A lot more than she should, honestly, considering it's been only four days since she met them. When she's pulling out the weeds in the garden, she wonders why they were fighting each other out in the middle of nowhere. When she's sweeping up the stray leaves on the ground just outside the compound, she wonders what their names are. When she's waking up the younger children for breakfast, she wonders why they were so friendly to her - to a stranger. Weren't they afraid of strangers? Weren't they taught to be wary of outsiders? Her brother was a Shinobi, and even he got cautious when foreigners came around.

As she eats breakfast, her mind wanders. Shinobi… could they have been? They looked so young, but Kouji was only a little bit bigger than them, and he'd started training as a Shinobi at an even younger age. But they hadn't been _dressed_ like Shinobi, so surely they weren't… right? She shakes her head, reminding herself that her brother was only dressed as a Shinobi when he had to leave for a mission.

As she puts her breakfast dishes next to the small stack of things some other girls would wash, she wonders why it even mattered if they were Shinobi.

 _Because Shinobi are killers,_ she immediately thinks. Then she remembers Kouji, and she almost wants to hit herself for thinking that about him at all. Kouji was nothing but kind and gentle and patient with her, carrying her on his back out of the flames of their old home only to jump right back into it to save others. Kouji was… he wasn't like _other_ Shinobi.

Maybe those boys weren't like other Shinobi either?

She stands outside with some younger children, watching them play. Sachiko sat next to her, humming a little off-tune melody under her breath as she looked through the different little rocks that the kids brought her. She was nit-picky, only keeping the ones she thought were prettiest. Hanako wanted to go play with the others, to play tag or play house, but when she thought about leaving Sachiko to sit alone on the porch, she felt guilty. She knows her little sister wouldn't mind, would tell her to go play and bring her back something nice for her collection, but still…

Hanako glances at the water reserves nearby. It was just off to the side of the backyard area where the children chased each other with stick-swords. It wasn't guarded at all - the adults taught the children to play responsibly, to never go near it unless they needed a drink after playing in the sun.

But… some kids were forgetful of instructions, sometimes. Briefly, just briefly, she thinks about enticing the children to play closer to the buckets - egg them on to wrestle until someone knocks one over and the water spilled.

_If the water spilled, we'd be low on reserves… Somebody would have to get more… Go back down to the river…_

She felt scandalous for thinking like that at all, and she angrily shakes her head to dispel the thoughts. How could she think like that? Ruin the Clan's supplies just so she could go try to meet some children she didn't even know again? Maybe they wouldn't even be there, and then what? She would have just given herself an extra work load for no reason at all.

"Hana-nee," Sachiko's quiet voice spoke up from beside Hanako. She looked down at her little sister, forcing a small smile to her lips. She almost felt guilty, like her sister had to have known what she was thinking about and would scold her for it.

"Yes, Sachiko?" Hanako sat down, putting a hand up to smooth down the loose strands of light brown hair on her sister's head. Sachiko was the only one who inherited Father's brunette hair, while both Kouji and Hanako had their mother's silver locks. However, Hanako herself was the only one of them all to also inherit their mother's purple eyes - both her brother and sister had brown eyes just like their father did.

"Can you find me a blue stone?" She held up her hands, cupped together with a handful of little rocks inside. "I have four greens, and four greys, but only three blues. Can you find a blue one?"

She spoke quietly, and her eyes were half-lidded like she was just a hair away from passing out. She was often like this, though - like everything in the world exhausted her. Everything in the world was just a little bit too much for her to handle. It made Hanako's heart ache.

"Of course," she nods with a more genuine smile. There weren't many blue rocks around the area of the compound, she knew. This wasn't the first time Sachiko asked others to find her rocks with specific colors or designs on them, she liked to keep her collection even and when one kind - color, size, shape - had less than the others, she wanted immediately for that to be remedied.

_There were bound to be colorful stones in the river, though, where the water currents eroded the stones' outer layers so they were shiny and beautiful..._

She looked back to the water containers.

* * *

"Aoi-san! Aoi-san!" A squabble of children ran barefoot through the house, making quite a ruckus as they went. Many of them were covered in dirt or grass stains, and a few of them were soaked through their clothes. A handful of children at the front of the grouping - the older ones - were holding back tears. Hanako was holding Sachiko in her arms, the little girl held tight against her chest with her small arms wrapped around her elder sister's neck. Hanako walked leisurely, but her heart was beating hard.

Aoi was just a cook, really, but she did such a good job of whipping the children into shape when they did something wrong that most looked to her when the kids were involved anyway.

"What is it, Hibiki-kun?" She asked in a not-quite-gentle-but-not-quite-scolding voice to the young boy in the front of the group. Hanako would have thought something funny, like wondering if Aoi was even capable of having a gentle voice at all, if it weren't for the fact that her nerves were a wreck.

Hibiki, only seven years old, held back tears as he wiped his wet hair away from his forehead. "We… we… We were playin' rough in the back and…" He stumbled over his words, afraid to admit that they'd done something wrong. At the behest of Aoi, he tried to speak again, but instead he wailed and sobbed, finally letting the tears free.

"The water cans," Hanako spoke up near the middle of the group, her voice meek and quiet. She was the oldest out of them all, but her face flushed with shame the moment Aoi looked at her. _Did she know? Could she tell immediately? Did she see it in Hanako's eyes, the shame and guilt she felt in doing something wrong on purpose?_

"What about them?" Aoi asked sternly, getting more frustrated the longer this went on.

"They fell over," she added quietly. "When they- when _we_ were wrestling."

She hadn't been wrestling with the others at all, but her internal guilt at getting the other children in trouble would not let her allow them to take the full blame. She had to be punished too, for her wrong doings.

"What? How could you let this happen, Hanako-sama! You were supposed to be watching over them! You're the eldest, you shouldn't have let them get so close to the containers!" Even as Aoi scolded her in front of the others, she flitted around the small group of children to check for any injuries or scrapes. Moments like these reminded Hanako that, though she poked fun at the older woman in her mind for how stern and demanding she was, she really did care for all of them here.

Hanako's face flushed hot under the weight of the Aoi's scolding, and a child off to the side of her grabbed her hand in a quiet attempt at comforting her. They've all been here before, being scolded by Aoi, and none of them liked it. Sachiko was the only one who'd never had to deal with Aoi's stern temperament before, and she sniffled quietly as she listened to the older woman shout.

The moment - the _split second_ \- Aoi heard the little girl sniffling, she went dead silent. She pursed her lips together, then held out her hands. Hanako agreeably handed over her little sister, and Sachiko let herself be exchanged with nothing more than a tearful look at her older sister.

"Oh, dear, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, lovely, I didn't intend to sound so mean! It's alright," Aoi tucked Sachiko's head of messy brown hair beneath her chin, rocking her back and forth. Aoi's brown eyes scanned through the crowd of sniffling, dirty children one last time before she sighed. "Hanako-sama, as you were the one in charge when this happened, it's only right you be the one to fix it. Please go collect more water from the river."

Hanako nodded quickly, then bounded off just as fast to go get the buckets. She had to leave the area as fast as she could, both to get away from the disappointed stare of Aoi, and to hide the grin that spread across her face. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, and her nerves were aflame. She felt like she'd just gotten away with a crime, despite logically knowing it was just a small accident, nothing big or important.

She couldn't keep the nerves down on her way to the river, however. She wondered, suddenly, _why_ she was so excited to see those boys again. She tried to argue with herself that she had knocked over the water so she could get a blue stone for her sister, but she knew that she had only been using Sachiko's desire as a push to do what Hanako herself had already wanted to do.

Perhaps it was the prospect of making friends? They were strangers, sure, but they didn't have to _stay_ that way. There were plenty of children on the Clan compound, but they were all Ueno children and Hanako considered them more family than friends.

Then she wondered, did she even have any real friends? She never knew anybody outside of the Clan itself because of how often they moved from place to place.

(They had a real home, once - all those years ago. As soon as it burned to the ground, they'd never had a real home again. Father said they may never have another home to permanently live in.)

She got to the river quicker than she anticipated, but when she arrived she saw that there was nobody else there. She moved slowly to the river side to fill the buckets, looking around as she did. Were they really not here today? Maybe they would never show up again, maybe the last time they met was just that - the _last_ time.

Disappointed in this new discovery, Hanako pouted as she filled the buckets.

Her earlier fear had been right, then. She'd really just given herself more chores to do with no payoff. No friends to make.

Yet…

Yet, even after she filled the buckets, she stayed there. It might not have been a good idea, she was sure to be scolded for taking so long to do her chores, but she set the buckets down in the grass a few feet away from the river and just sat there. She waited, looking around. She counted blades of grass until she got to seventy, then got up and stretched. She walked back and forth between two trees, then walked over to the river again. When she walked forward enough that her feet submerged in the water all the way to her ankles, she stopped.

She didn't know how to swim, so there was no way she could get across it. As she looked around, however, she noticed a small path of sorts - large boulders in the water that she could hop across to get to the other side. She made towards it, then paused.

She had no reason to go to the other side at all. And what if she got halfway through and slipped, falling into the water? She frowned, then moved backwards. Finally, she sat down on the riverbank itself, hugging her knees to her chest and waiting.

For a moment, she did nothing. Just sat there, quietly, patiently.

Then she remembered one of the reasons she'd come out here to begin with - blue stones! She needed to find some pretty blue rocks to give to her sister. She stood up again and went as deep into the water as she dared to go, pulling up the ends of her kimono with one hand so the water that reached her knees wouldn't get her clothes wet. She rolled up her sleeves too, to reach into the water and grab anything she thought might be blue enough to satisfy Sachiko. She would pull one up, realize it was too grey or brown or just plain not pretty enough, then throw it back to the river to look for another.

It was like this, submerged in the water to her knees, with one hand full of little pebbles that she scrutinized carefully and her kimono scrunched tightly in the other hand above her knees, that the two boys found her when they arrived.

They watched quietly for a moment, both surprised to see her here again and confused at what she was doing.

"Hey!" The same boy who'd spoken to her four days ago shouted to get her attention.

Hanako dropped the stones she was looking at, shocked. The voice was familiar enough to not cause fear, but she still looked up with teary eyes. She couldn't help the fact that she tended to tear up whenever anyone yelled at her, it happened automatically and it happened often enough that she found it embarrassing. She willed her tears to not fall - despite the fact that her mother told her it was okay to cry, she didn't want to cry in front of strangers. What would they think of her, then?

Apparently the answer was that they felt immediate guilt.

"AH! I'M SO SORRY!" The bowl-cut boy from before held his head in his hands, looking like he was about to start crying as well. The boy with spiky dark hair hit his companion - friend? - on the arm harshly as punishment, enough that bowl-cut boy fell over into the dirt. It was funny enough that Hanako offered a small, placating smile. She sniffled and, with relief, felt the tears in her eyes receding.

Hanako stood up, straightening her posture like she was always taught to do in the company of others.

"Are you okay?" The boy with dark hair finally spoke. He was so much closer to her than he had been moments ago and, with a start, Hanako realized he was standing on top of the water's surface. The ebb and flow of the river, the rushing currents, didn't affect him at all and he stood stock still as she stared in wonder.

She nodded hesitantly, quiet as ever, and wiped away at her eyes to dry anything that hadn't gone away yet. She didn't _want_ to speak, she always felt more comfortable when sitting in companionable silence, but she knew it was rude to not answer a question - even if she'd already nodded. Maybe after she knew them better she could get away with being more quiet, but for now…

"It- it's okay… He just startled me, is all," she spoke meekly. When she brought her hand down, the boy who'd shouted was standing right beside the dark haired boy as well - also on top of the water. He'd gotten closer without making any noise at all.

_Shinobi. They're Shinobi._

Suddenly, her fear and apprehension returned full force. _Shinobi are killers._ The boy with dark hair held out his hand to help her back up onto the river bank, and though she noticed that her legs were going numb from the cold water, she didn't accept it right away. _Shinobi are killers, who do magical, terrible things that normal people can't._

_But Kouji…_

She took his hand slowly. Kouji was different. They could be too, right…?

"Who are you?" Bowl-cut boy asked quietly, with a look of surprise still on his face. "We've been coming here to the river for a little while now and I've never seen you here before."

"Me neither," the dark haired boy spoke up.

When Hanako was out of the water, she dropped her kimono to finally cover her legs again. "Hanako…" She briefly wondered if she should tell them her last name. Kouji talked about 'Shinobi rules' every once in a while, and he'd once mentioned that telling someone your family name was some kind of rule - was it that you're _not_ supposed to tell them, or that you _are_ supposed to tell them?

...Well, it didn't really matter, did it? Hanako wasn't a Shinobi. She had no reason to try living by Shinobi rule.

"Hanako Ueno," she said with a small smile. She gave a shallow bow to the both of them, and they did the same in turn.

"Ueno? It sounds familiar…" The bowl-cut boy said quietly for a moment. He shook his head, his dark brown hair flying out to fan his face for a moment, then smiled brightly. "I'm Hashirama! It's nice to meet you, Hanako-san! I'm sorry for making you cry!"

"It's fine," she repeated her earlier words, fighting the urge to look down at her sandals. She had no experience talking to strangers at all, and now that she found herself face to face with people she wasn't familiar with, she couldn't help the embarrassed blush that crossed her face and made her feel too warm.

"I'm Madara," the boy with dark hair smiled at her. He pointed to his companion without turning to look at him. "I'm also sorry he made you cry."

"Hey!" Hashirama started indignantly.

Hanako let out a shaky laugh. Though her nerves were a wreck from both the earlier tears and the strangers around her, she felt better bit by bit as they spoke and showed her that they were truly just… Children. Not dangerous enemies that she should run from, not killers that she should hate. Just a couple of boys playing by the river.

"What were you doing in the water, Hanako-san?" Hashirama asked after collecting himself from Madara's words. Madara looked at her with curiosity, apparently also interested in the answer.

"Ah, my sister, well… I-I'm looking for pretty stones. To collect."

"Ah!" Hashirama grinned brightly, and Hanako was starting to think that was his default expression. She didn't mind it at all though - in fact, she rather enjoyed it. She smiled with him, easily. "I'll help you! I'll find a pretty stone for you, Hanako-san!"

As soon as he made the promise, he dove straight into the river to reach the bottom and look for something. Madara frowned, then immediately followed after him, shouting over his shoulder to Hanako,

"I'll find one, too! I'll find a better one!"

Hanako watched with wide, shocked eyes. Of course just because _she_ couldn't swim didn't mean others couldn't. She knew that. But the way they dove down to the bottom of the river with no fear had her pausing. Even if she _could_ swim, she'd have reservations about going into that water where the currents were strong.

With a belated realization that she didn't tell them she was looking specifically for a _blue_ stone, she walked a few steps into the river again to start looking on her own. She found one easily enough this time, a turquoise color with some scratches on it but otherwise had a rather nice looking design of spots, and stuffed it into the sleeve of her kimono where it wouldn't easily fall out. Both hands would be taken up by carrying the buckets, after all.

After she found the stone for Sachiko, she sat on the riverbank and waited. Both boys occasionally came up for air, arguing about something they saw or found underneath the water, before diving back down. Hanako watched with a smile.

Finally, after another few minutes of watching them dive down and up again, Madara came up first with a grin. He pushed his dark hair out of his face, and Hanako thought he looked a little silly when his hair was limp from the water dragging it down. Then he put his hands on the surface of the water and, with a strong push, used it as a solid surface to stand on the water. Hanako knew it was another thing that Shinobi did, of course, but she still found it _incredible_. Hashirama came up from the water soon after, but Madara was already in front of her with a bright grin on his face - his was different from Hashirama's though.

Whereas Hashirama smiled with joy in his eyes, it seemed more like Madara grinned because he was proud he won some kind of competition.

Hanako stood up from her resting spot as he approached, and Madara grabbed her hand gently to place a little round stone in it.

"There, like I promised! Mine is better!"

"No, mine is better! Mine's got the better design on it! Look, Hanako-san, it has swirls on it!"

Hashirama rushed up beside Madara, putting his rock in her other hand. As soon as the brunette boy came up beside them both, Madara retracted his hand from where he'd been gripping hers, with a blush on his face. She wondered what he was embarrassed about.

"She'll be the judge, idiot, let her look at them!" Madara harshly reprimanded him, but Hashirama only smiled and laughed. Hanako understood, then, that they must have been friends for a while, if they could insult each other without being upset by the words. She looked down at the two stones in her hands, and smiled. They were both lovely, actually, and she had a hard time picking between the two.

The stone that Hashirama had given her was grey like most rocks are, but it'd been weathered down by the currents of the water so that it was shiny and smooth to the touch. And, true to his word, there was some kind of swirling design on the underside of it where it was flattest. It must have rested on something in that shape for a very long time to have the design carved into it.

Madara's stone was two-toned, with green and brown together in a pattern that reminded her of snake skin. Like the other, it was smooth to the touch thanks to being weathered down.

"Hm," she hummed in short contemplation, moving her hands like she was weighing her choices. She smiled gently, then held up one hand. "Madara's stone is prettier!"

Madara broke into a wide grin, put his hands on his hips, and laughed a proud laugh. Hashirama looked utterly defeated suddenly, sitting down and hugging his knees close to his chest. He whined about how he was sure he would win only to be crushed mercilessly. Hanako giggled quietly.

"Yours is nice too, Hashirama."

He perked up instantly.

The two boys began talking to each other again, about something else, some other kind of competition they would get into to 'even the scores' from their most recent one, but Hanako stopped paying attention as she looked up at the sky. She'd spent way too long here, she realized suddenly, and if she didn't return soon, Aoi would go from being upset about her lateness to being worried she'd gotten hurt or kidnapped.

Hanako put both stones into her kimono sleeve right next to the one for her sister, then picked up the buckets of water and began a light jog back into the forest.

"Ah, wait! Where are you going, Hanako-san?" Madara called out to her.

"I have to go, I'll be- I'm going to be late!" She said quickly. She paused, and looked over her shoulder at the two boys who looked, to her surprise, genuinely sad to see her go. "I…"

She smiled at them.

"I'll come back, when I can."

* * *

She was right, Aoi had been worried sick.

"I was just a hair's width away from sending someone after you, you know! Silly girl, what could you have possibly been doing to be out there for so long?!" Aoi scolded her, bent at the waist so Hanako couldn't escape her glare. The younger girl clutched the skirt of her kimono tightly, nervous and upset to be scolded _again._ Twice in one day. It was the most she'd ever been reprimanded before, and she found that she hated it quite a bit.

"I…" She felt her voice wobble, and knew she was close to tears. She took in a deep breath, then slowly pulled out the blue stone in her sleeve. "...For Sachiko." She spoke quietly and held up the stone in her palm, hoping that Aoi would understand without her needing more explanation.

As expected, she did. Aoi babied Hanako's sister more than anyone else, and of course knew, and indulged when she could, about her little collection of things she found neat.

"It.. it took a while to find." Hanako hadn't quite _lied,_ she really did only find it after she'd waited so long for the boys to return. But it still left a sour taste in her mouth like she had told a lie right to the older woman's face.

"Oh, I'm…" She took the stone from Hanako's hand. She sighed. "It's very nice of you to go out of your way for your sister like this, Hanako-sama. Still! You should be more careful and shouldn't spend too much time out there alone. It's dangerous, you know! There are Shinobi around every corner! Maybe I should start sending someone else out instead…"

"No!" Hanako said quickly, with a voice louder than she usually used. A few of the young women who were helping out in the kitchen to prepare lunch for everyone paused what they were doing to stare, surprised. Everybody knew the Clan Head's daughter rarely spoke, or spoke quietly when she had to. For the longest time, it was assumed she must have had something wrong with her throat, that maybe she spoke so little because it pained her to do so. Hanako's face burned hot at the realization of what she'd just done, shouting at someone else, and she bowed deeply at the waist in apology. "I- I like going to the river, Aoi-san! It's fun! Please let me keep going!"

Aoi stared down at her in equal shock as the other women, but as she saw Hanako's posture shake from the strain of holding the deep bow for just a little too long, she hurriedly made the girl stand up straight again.

"Whatever will I do with you, girl…" She heaved a deep sigh. "...I'll allow it. But you must _swear_ you'll never be late again!"

Hanako nodded her head so fast she was sure she'd have a headache later.

That was that, really. Aoi let her go, Hanako gave the blue stone to Sachiko - who took it with the brightest grin she'd seen on her face in a while - and she walked out to the backyard area to help the other children do chores. It was the least she could do after getting them in trouble that morning. As she walked, though, she felt the two stones from the boys in her sleeve, and she smiled, gently, to herself.

Hopefully Sachiko wouldn't mind that she kept those two for her, and her alone.


	4. Chapter 3

[[A/N: The Hashirama Senju databook says that he was 4'9" when he first met Madara, and Madara was 4'8" at the time, so using my ultra super cool superior detective skills, I did a quick google search and found out that kids around that height are about 11 years old. So that's how I came to the conclusion of the kids' ages in this chapter, in case any are curious haha.

Enjoy the chapter! Leave a review if you have anything to say!]]

* * *

It's been a blissful, peaceful, _boring_ week-and-a-half since she last saw Madara and Hashirama. Kouji has been away the entire time, and though it would normally worry her when he was out for long periods of time, the Clan received updates on their mission often enough that it didn't cross her mind much. Otherwise, everything else has been nothing out of the ordinary. She played her little game where she would only get up after the person outside her door left, she went out to do sunrise chores, she ate breakfast, did afternoon chores, had lunch, then spent her time with Sachiko until dinner. Sleep, then rinse and repeat.

 _Boring means safety,_ she told herself repeatedly.

Still… when her hands brushed over those two smooth rocks she carried on her, tucked safely away into her kimono sleeves, she couldn't help but think it would be nice to _do_ something. _Go_ somewhere.

She wanted to go down to the river again.

"Hanako."

She froze in her tracks on the wooden porch just outside the front doors, broom clutched tightly between her small hands. Her breath caught in her throat. She turned around slowly, oh so slowly, and peered up at the tall man from beneath the hair that fell in her face. She hadn't heard him approach at all.

"...Yes, otou-sama?" The honorific was overly respectful and detached. She didn't dare refer to him any other way.

Her father had been home the entire time, so of course it wasn't a surprise that he was here. He'd never left with Kouji on the mission, despite being a Shinobi himself. Part of her found that infuriating, and she'd wanted to scream at him and call him a coward, wanted to tell him that he hid himself away in relative safety while he sent his own son out to do battle with their enemies. But she didn't, of course.

"Your mother is sick."

Her mouth went slack, looking up at him with wide purple eyes. He said this in a casual tone, like he was discussing the weather, like it was nothing to think much about. Like he didn't _care._

"W-what? Okaa-chan is sick? With what? Is it serious? Is she _okay?_ " She bombarded him with questions, dropping the broom and, for just a moment, forgetting her fear of the man before her as she stepped toward him. She reached her hands up like she would grab his hand. That moment didn't last long, as he looked down at her with narrowed eyes and spoke his next words through clenched teeth.

"I've done you the honor of telling you _in person_ , rather than sending a servant. _Go,_ " he put emphasis on the word, "finish your responsibilities."

He turned on his heel to leave.

 _That was it?_ He wanted her to go back to her _responsibilities,_ continue doing her chores, after telling her that? With little to no information as to how her mother was doing? Her mother had been sick on and off for the last four years, something the healers said was because of that fateful night where their home was burned down and she'd inhaled so much smoke. Sometimes it was a bad cough for a few days, and other times, it got extreme enough that she was bedridden with fevers high enough to cause deliriousness. Those moments made Hanako fearful for her beloved mother's life.

But it'd been months, almost a full year, since she last got sick at all. Hanako had let herself believe, foolishly, that maybe it was over for good. Maybe she would be healthy for the rest of her life, and live long enough to see her daughters grow old enough to have children of their own one day.

As Hanako looked at her father's back, she seethed. Her anger at her father's callousness and her fear of his swift punishment clashed in her heart, and she stood there shaking, face red as tears pricked her eyes.

_Do you even care?_

He paused. Glanced over his shoulder.

"What?" He asked her, his voice low.

Her hands clutched tightly together, her eyes wide, she realized too little too late that she'd said it out loud.

"Do you…" There was no going back, anyway. It was out already. Tears slipped from her eyes and she hurriedly wiped them away, wanting to keep him in her sight. "Do you _care?_ About- about okaa-chan being sick?"

Her voice was meek as she spoke, and she could hear the wavering clear enough that she knew he must have heard it too. Despite that, her brows were furrowed in anger. When he didn't respond right away, still just looking at her over his shoulder, she let out a shaky breath and tried again. Louder, so there was no mistaking the fact that he could hear her.

"Did you _EVER_ c-"

Fast, faster than she could see, so fast she didn't realize what happened at first. She had been staring at him with bleary, tear-filled eyes. Then, suddenly, she was on the ground, staring up at the cloudy sky with a searing pain in the left side of her face. She didn't try to move for a while, even as her head throbbed like someone was banging a drum inside of her skull, even as the left side of her face got so hot it felt like it'd been lit on fire. There was a trickle of something on her cheek, and she couldn't tell if it was her own tears or if he'd hit her hard enough to draw blood.

"I will not be disrespected by such an unruly brat, my own _daughter!_ " He seethed as he spoke, just outside of her field of view. She continued staring at the sky, unmoving. "Don't _ever_ raise your voice to me again, do you understand?"

Shakily, she nodded. She heard the whisper quiet steps of his bare feet on the wood flooring as he walked away. She shuts her eyes and weeps silently, even as she hears a few hesitant footsteps come up beside her. When she hears the steps stop beside her head and the whisper of fabric as they bend down to her level, she tries to hold her tears in.

"Hana-nee," Sachiko's scared, quiet voice spoke. Hanako's eyes shot open. She turned her head to the side - not only was Sachiko there beside her, light brunette hair a mess like she'd just woken up from a nap, but there was also a small group of the younger children standing behind her, half hiding behind a corner and looking at her with teary, fearful looks in their young eyes.

Hanako sits up, wiping away the tears from her cheeks. She winced when the fabric came into contact with the left side of her face, and when she pulled her kimono sleeves away, her earlier fears were proven right. A small smudge of blood was on her sleeve. Out of all the times he'd hit her… she couldn't recall a single time where he'd struck hard enough to break the skin.

Kouji had always told her that Father often 'held back' when hitting her, and she'd never believed him. Now, she wondered how hard he would hit Kouji if he had disobeyed or upset him.

( _Though, that almost never happened. He was as obedient as they came. A perfect Clan Heir for anyone._ )

"Are you okay, Hana-nee?"

Hanako looked at her little sister, and nodded her head quietly. She had to be _strong._ She needed to show her sister that it was alright - that there was nothing to fear.

Despite her attempts, there were tears in Sachiko's brown eyes.

Hanako leaned over and hugged her sister, and Sachiko leaned into the comforting embrace easily. Hanako thought she was doing it to bring safety and comfort to her little sister, but as Sachiko's little arms hugged her as close as she could, she realized that she had needed this just as much. The other children came forward too, dog-piling into the hug and letting their tears fall.

"I was s-so scared," sniffed one boy, "when you- you hit the ground!"

"I'm okay," Hanako responded with a trembling lip. "I'm okay."

* * *

Two days later, the cut on her cheek had scabbed over enough so that it wasn't bleeding any longer. Sometimes it itched, but the bruise surrounding it kept her from touching it at all. She'd learned from the child bystanders that he'd back-handed her hard enough to send her flying a few feet, crashing into the ground hard. It must have been his ring, then, that'd cut her cheek open.

_His wedding ring._

Sometimes she scowled and thought about why her mother was with him at all. She hated him just as much as Hanako did, if the trembling in her hands whenever he raised his voice was anything to go by. So why? Why did she ever marry such a person? Was it an arranged marriage? Had they truly been in love at one point?

As she touched her fingers to her bruised cheek, she had a hard time imagining that scenario.

She'd gone to visit her mother immediately after those events took place, taking Sachiko with her. The children followed suit. The Clan adored Yuna Ueno, in all her kindness and generosity, with her gentle voice and comforting touch. Every time she fell ill, they all worried and fussed over her as if _she_ were the child. Thankfully, to the relief of all, it seems like this time's illness is an easy one - nothing worse than a cough and a slight fever.

Now, she stood just outside of her father's training room. There were mats placed around the room to soften the ground, and training dummies neatly put away in one corner. Hanako could hear her father training with someone, and she kept her eyes lowered to the ground as she opened the sliding door slowly.

"Otou-sama…" She spoke meekly.

The sounds of fighting stopped.

"What is it, Hanako?" Her father asked, panting slightly from exertion. She raised her eyes just enough to see the two people from the stomach down. She didn't recognize the other adult in the room without seeing his face, but she noticed that he had burn scars on both arms.

"I was wondering… Can I.. Can I have my lunch outside?" She tried to put on a cool, tempered voice, but she knew he could hear the waver. She made sure not to speak any louder than just above a whisper.

"I don't care where you eat your lunch," he sighed. Not angrily, more along the lines of disappointed that he had to explain something simple. With a frown, she realized she must not have explained what she really meant. She already knew she could have her lunch in the back area, some children preferred eating out there so they could get right back to playing afterwards.

"...In the forest?" She added quietly after a moment.

At that, her father paused. The stranger handed him a towel, and he wiped his hands as he walked a few steps closer to Hanako. She didn't back away, back ram-rod straight as she kept her gaze solely on his shirt.

"Why do you want to go out in the forests?" When she took too long to respond, he spoke again in an impatient voice. " _Hanako._ "

She looked up, finally meeting his eyes.

His long, light brown hair was tied back into a low ponytail, and his face was flushed with exertion from the exercise. The hard lines in his face, both from age and the years of war he's lived through, deepened when he frowned down at her. His light brown eyes moved from her own purple eyes, to the injury on her cheek. He grimaced.

"I just like the forest. It's… peaceful," came Hanako's meager reply. It was true enough, but she hoped with everything she had that he couldn't see through her. Kouji probably could have, if he were here. He always seemed to see through her half-truths and sly responses when she wanted to get away with something.

He looked at her cheek for a moment longer, then nodded his head. He turned back around to face his sparring companion.

"Stay where you can be heard, Hanako."

With that subtle closing of the conversation, she closes the sliding door and leaves. She couldn't keep the little smile from her face as she quickly walked back to the kitchen area. She'd helped make lunch today, a compromise because she had finished her afternoon chores early and didn't want to sit around doing nothing, and she wanted to bring some of the onigiri she made to her friends.

_Friends…_

That title alone, so small and insignificant to most, made her laugh a giddy laugh. Even as the grin stretched the bruise on her face and made it ache again. When she entered the kitchen, Aoi was there to greet her. Hanako barely paid her any mind as she grabbed the wrapped onigiri and made to leave the kitchen in a hurry.

"Ah, Hanako-sama! Did Kichirō-sama say you could go?" She shouted out after the running child.

"Mm-hm!" Hanako called over her shoulder as she left the Clan compound.

Aoi shook her head, heaving a sigh.

"Where is Hana-nee going, Aoi-san?" Aoi turned to see little Sachiko by her side, holding onto a sewed together doll. The Clan Head's wife had sewn it together a few days ago while bed bound with her newest illness, and Sachiko had now taken to carrying it with her everywhere she went. She treated it like it was her own child, rocking it and offering it food when they sat at the breakfast table together.

Aoi offered a gentle smile to the little girl. "Nevermind that, Sachiko. Let's get you some lunch, hm?"

Sachiko smiled, nodding her head.

* * *

"Madara!" Hanako called out with a bright smile on her face as she ran to the river. As soon as she cleared the forest line, she saw both boys there. She didn't know what their schedules were - how often they showed up, how long they stayed for - because she'd never asked. Maybe they played together every single day, or maybe her showing up at the same time as them was always just a coincidence.

"Madara, Hashirama! Hello! I'm back again!"

They were on the other side of the clearing, doing what looked like wrestling but… rougher? For just a moment, Hanako paused. Were they fighting for real this time? Did something go wrong, were they angry with each other?

Yet, as soon as they noticed her there, heard her voice calling out their name, they paused in their fighting. Hashirama grinned brightly and waved at her, pushing Madara off from where he'd been pinning him into the dirt. Madara shot a look of annoyance at Hashirama for pushing him off like that, but otherwise he smiled at Hanako's arrival as well.

She shook her head to clear her earlier thoughts. Maybe they'd just been training together, then. Kouji trained with other kids often, she knew.

"I- I brought something! For us!" She called out across the river, a small blush coming to her face. She couldn't help the excitement she felt in being able to be here, to be with her friends again, but she also couldn't help feeling a bit embarrassed about it. Like maybe she should tone it down, or fear pushing them away with how _too eager_ she was.

"Uwahh, really?!" Hashirama said in a curious voice.

"What is it?" Madara asked, looking equally excited at the idea of receiving something.

Everyone liked getting gifts, right? Hanako smiled. She looked to the path of boulders in the river, wondering if she should go to them or ask them to walk across the water to come to her. They'd always done that, though - accommodating for her inability to meet them on the other side. She pouted a bit.

Finally, she made up her mind and began walking forward, taking careful steps so she didn't fall. She held the wrapped onigiri to her chest tight enough that for a moment she worried she might squash them, but as she made it about halfway through, she heard quiet splashing to her side. When she looked up, Madara was there standing on top of the river. Hashirama stood back on the other side of the bank, grinning.

Madara held out one hand to her, rubbing the back of his neck with the other.

"Here, take my hand and I'll lead you over. So you don't trip," he spoke in a somewhat quiet voice. Was he… embarrassed? When Hanako noticed the blush on his face, he turned to look away from her.

"SHUT UP!" He shouted at the laughing Hashirama in the background.

Hanako jumped a bit at the loud voice, and Madara whipped around quickly with wide eyes. "Not you! You don't need to shut up! Just Hashirama!"

Hanako reached one hand out nervously, and Madara took it gently. If possible, his face burned ten shades redder at the contact, and he quickly turned around to begin walking to the other side of the river. Hanako looked down at their hands clasped together as she hopped from one stone to the next.

"Your hand…" She started, then paused. Her face burned hot, and she looked down at her feet abashedly.

"Eh? What about my hand?" He didn't turn around as he asked.

"...It's very warm."

She couldn't see his face, couldn't see any of the front of him due to him walking in front of her, but she saw his head dip a bit lower and she definitely heard Hashirama snickering to himself.

"...Th-thanks."

As soon as she touched the hard gravel and pebbles of the other side, Madara let go of her hand as if he'd been burned, hurrying over to his friend's side to level a glare at him. Hashirama fell to the ground and hugged his knees to himself again, muttering an apology even as Madara's glare didn't let up.

Hanako looked between them, suddenly feeling shy. "I… I brought some food."

Hashirama, as expected, perked up instantly. Hanako smiled and knelt down to the ground between the two boys, putting the wrapped food down. Madara sat down beside his friend, and Hanako unwrapped the cloth around the onigiri. When the food was finally free of the wrapping, she was glad to see she didn't squish any of them on her tread over the water. They each looked as delicious as ever, and she looked up at her companions with wide, excited eyes and a grin.

However, neither of them were looking at the food.

"Hana-chan," Hashirama spoke up in an uncomfortable voice. It was the first time he'd called her by the familiar and affectionate nickname, and she wondered why that was. He brought a hand up, reaching out to her but stopping just shy of touching her face.

"Who hurt you?" Madara asked in Hashirama's sudden silence. His voice was sharp, and angry sounding. The smile fell from her lips. His eyes were narrowed, focused wholly on the left side of her face.

"Oh, this… This is.." She sat back, raising one hand up to touch it gingerly to her bruised cheek. She shook her head a bit, hesitant. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

The boys had differing reactions to that. Madara looked furious, ready to lash out. She couldn't deny that it didn't frighten her just the slightest bit. Hashirama looked sad, and appalled. Like he couldn't believe something like this had happened at all - yet, in his eyes, Hanako saw… Understanding? Familiarity? Perhaps… Perhaps he knew where it came from? Perhaps he was familiar with the scenario himself?

She hoped not. _God,_ she hoped not. She didn't want anyone to hurt her friend.

And with a start, she realized that, perhaps, this was the exact same thing the two of them were thinking right now.

Her hand shook over her cheek, and she looked away from them. She looked down at the food, over at the forest to the side of them, down at her hand holding tightly to her kimono. Anywhere so that she didn't have to look directly into their eyes.

"It's just… Sometimes my otou-sama gets mad…" She left it at that. Both of them seemed to understand it right away.

For a moment, absolute silence. The air felt thick. Hanako almost regretted coming out here, now. She should have waited until the bruise had healed. At least then they wouldn't be concerning themselves with her wellbeing. They could all go back to just playing around and talking about stupid things, like the other times they'd met up.

"This one looks delicious," Madara said quietly after he became too stifled by the silence. He looked down at the onigiri, pointing at one with fish flakes.

Hanako nearly breathed a sigh of relief at the conversation change, and hurriedly, with a shaky hand, grabbed it. She held it out to him with a smile. Madara blinked once, in surprise, then gasped.

"Can I really have it?"

Hanako nodded eagerly, pushing it forward into his hands. He grinned as he accepted it, thanking her before taking a bite into it. Hashirama looked at him as he did, and when Madara exclaimed - with a full mouth - that it was delicious, Hashirama looked back at Hanako with bright, pleading eyes.

"Can I have one too, Hana-chan?! I want one!" She giggled quietly.

"Choose one," she looked down at the remaining two. All three had different toppings - one with fish flakes, one with fried mushrooms, and one with sesame seeds. She didn't have a preference for any of them, so she was more than happy to allow her friends to choose which ones they wanted most.

Hashirama shook his head. "No, no! You choose first, I'll take whatever's left!"

Madara's brow twitched. He swallowed what he had in his mouth, then leaned forward to speak, "You're obviously drooling over the mushroom. Just take it!"

Hashirama, at being caught, looks up at Hanako with puppy eyes. She smiled and handed it to him, and he took a bite right away. "Mmm!" He hums as he chews, a smile on his face. "This is good!"

"Did you make them?" Madara asked.

Hanako nodded shyly. Hashirama began gushing over how amazing of a cook she must have been, but she turned away with a blush on her face. She looked up at the sky, and paused. She would have to go soon - lunch would be over in just a few minutes, and it took more time than that to get back to the Clan compound. She didn't want them knowing she went out too far from home, so she had to make it back in time to be called back inside. She picked up the last onigiri, intending on eating it on her walk back, but paused as Hashirama called her name.

"Where're you going, Hana-chan?" He asked, curious.

"I came out to have lunch. I gotta go back," she explained simply. Neither boys liked her leaving so soon after arriving, but they both nodded their heads in understanding. With farewells exchanged, she began the trek back over the river. Madara, with a stutter, had offered to walk her over again, but she'd declined with a gentle smile. She wanted to learn to do it on her own, and, admittedly, after he'd helped her across the first time, it wasn't as scary as she originally thought it was.

When she was nearly across, she paused. The rushing water flowed underneath her sandals, getting the edges of her feet wet, and she turned around just slightly to face Hashirama and Madara.

"Hey, how old are you two?"

"Eh?" Madara stood, curious at the sudden question.

"I'm eleven!" Hashirama proffered without hesitation, pointing a thumb at himself, seemingly proud of his age.

"Ah- I'm twelve!" Madara hurried to answer shortly after.

Hanako smiled, nodding. The same age, and one year younger, than her older brother. She continued on her way across, and made it all the way to the forest edge before Madara called out to her again.

"What about you, Hana-chan?"

She called out over her shoulder as she walked off, "Eight! See you again!"

Both boys watched her disappear into the thickest part of the trees. For a moment, both looked on in silence. Then, Hashirama smiled slyly and lightly tapped the back of his hand against the arm of his friend.

"You have it _bad_ , M-"

The older boy whacked him over the head before he could finish the sentence.


End file.
